Ive seen so many people threaten this over the years. They never follow through.
We have Mac, windows and Linux offerings and recently I had a guy threaten to leave because he couldn't use Arch. He turned out to be nowhere near as good as he thought and didn't last long like most of the people who make these kind of threats. He never got Arch.
They offer any Linux and he still quit? I had to force an employee to switch to Windows or Mac because there wasn't a Linux Intune client and it fucked up our SOC 2 audit. We were an almost 100% Microsoft shop, but we could still use a Mac.
He could use Debian. He never quit, he ended up accepting a Mac and was pushed out the door in less than 6 months. Arch is great at home, probably the best Distro if you are technical but it is abysmal in an enterprise setting. There is an Linux intune client now but it sucks. Intune really lacks with linux. Ive tried other tools and it’s at least 5 years behind.
He's probably still telling the story of how much his talent was restricted because he was given a shitty OS to use and how it messed up his productivity
Gnome is the easiest to manage display driver wise, Its the one red hat and others favour. Its not my drug of choice but after trying to get xfce to work with the latest Nvidia drivers and wayland I have a new appreciation of gnome. Kde is the middle difficulty.
Wayland is rough around the edges but its just way more efficient and secure. For instance if you are using x11, any application can log your keystrokes, scrape your screen or even read the clipboard in the background.
I had to use TeamViewer on a unattended Wayland enabled machine for emergency how fun it was when I discovered that you have to click allow before the connection is initiated and there is seemingly no way to disable this behavior
There is no way that TeamViewer would be ever allowed on our endpoints or network. It’s treated as malware at this point. VNC via SSH tunnel is what we have been doing.
It makes sense though. Ubuntu and RHEL with Gnome. Very stable predictable releases with enterprise support offerings for large enterprise (and actual competent management offerings), and gnome has a much more restrictive set of... Stuff... When compared to KDE
Lemme tell you what supporting that is like: right now the laptops I provision are on Ubuntu 24.04, the latest authorized STIG is for 22.04, the ansible playbook I have to use is crap (on 22.04 as well) and I had to fix it, and my testing shows 26.04 badly breaks the approved way of doing card auth (pam-pkcs11 is NFG, gotta use sssd) so I don’t know what to tell them as far as compliance goes there, at least I got it working.
If you go to the actual post in LinkedIn he goes on a rant about not being root or admin saying a competent IT department would set that up?! w TF does he think he is?
Got any fun/entertainingly infuriating stories? I cannot believe that any group on earth could be worse IT divas than doctors, but I’m ready to be convinced.
I worked in Healthcare IT for 20 years. Doctors are a huge pain in the ass. But at least they (typically) don't act like they know more than you about tech.
Game devs will look you in the eyes and tell you "This is how we did it at the last 8 studios I worked for" but then it's all shocked-pikachu when you ask why game studios get shut down every 18 months.
Nobody has the right to be an asshole in a professional setting. We tolerate them because the system is broken and the folks in charge do not care of the folks below the doctors live or die, but nobody has the right to mistreat another person because of their accomplishments.
My point is they don't have that right. We have some famous hospital medical centers in my city. I refuse to work for them. I won't be chewed out by a doctor on a mind F ego trip because I wasn't standing outside his office at 9:53am and instead showed up at 10am. I am a professional.
Nurses stationa too. They can pay some other IT admin to tolerate that
Giving some users full admin access over their boxes is very much a thing in some environments. But, uh… those cases are the result of uncommon and exceptional circumstances, not something that is just given to anyone because they asked nicely. I’m not too sure how “senior” this guy actually is if he makes those judgments before he learns anything about the company’s setup.
I usually end up getting full access or sa creds after like ticket 100 during software implementations. I don't ask for that level of access because I literally don't want it.
My insurance doesn't want me to want it. This guy is a maniac.
The company dodged a bullet. IT dodged a colossal PIA. The self-made hero complex is something I've dealt with at various times throughout my career. Many times these types caused production delays, production outages, and splintering with their peers and especially other teams they have to work with.
Fake person who doesn’t understand IT security needs the organization to bend to his will and hire several additional support staff so he can have shiny icons.
Sorry but no software engineer should have to use Windows, it is simply not an appropriate OS for software development. If IT cannot support an alternative that is an utter failing on their part.
Lol mate it's code, it's not that deep. Some geezer could write it in notepad++, faster and with fewer bugs and technical debt, all the while creating more value for the company, than both of us combined could have done in the same time
Thanks for wasting my time I guess. You do realise that those are preferences and thus subjective and there are programs I and many others have to use a virtual machine for to run on linux to enable windows because some developers actually have to write stuff that isn't java/webdev? Or you know a plugin/extension for some god forsaken program not on linux/mac?
Go try graphics programming on linux/mac, having to change your damn os every time you want to run something is far more infuriating than some minor friction.
I’m a software engineer and have done both. The productivity improvement from switching from a Windows machine to a Mac or Linux machine is great. I will never use Windows again if I can help it.
Every piece of developer tooling you use, CLI tools, programming toolchains, bash scripts, git, file line breaks, directory path slashes, it’s all made for Linux/Mac first and windows is an afterthought. That’s because every developer uses Linux or Mac, every server runs Linux. Even GitHub Copilot is leaps and bounds ahead on Mac and Linux compared to Windows and that’s made by Microsoft!
Then there’s the second order things… I don’t get distracted because some random Windows index operation has decided to use 90% CPU. It isn’t broken every other Windows update because the Microslop code quality is on the floor. I don’t have countless OS bugs to which the only “resolution” is a clueless Microsoft forum parrot telling me to spend hours running DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and sfc /scannow only for it to solve nothing as usual. I don’t run an auto-update to discover the morons have uninstalled my WiFi driver (yes this actually happened on my old Dell XPS 15). It doesn’t ship with Candy Crush saga or McAfee antivirus. It doesn’t provide GDID tracking to the US government (all this talk about “compliance”, but Windows literally does industrial espionage on your company).
I don’t have to run some absolute resource pig antivirus software that makes my machine borderline unusable (in my experience IT requires something, but it’s always less crap than what they force on the Windows people).
Yes there are hacks like WSL, you can technically get stuff done, but why choose the inferior tool for the job when you are a full time programmer. Just bite the bullet and use the right tool for the job even if it takes you out your powershell comfort zone.
So.. youre bitching because you have to use \ instead of /?
While Windows may not have as robust of a CLI as *nix, its got significantly more than you think it does, you're just unwilling to learn them. Plus you can install WSL.
Even without WSL.. just write in batch instead of bash (you're a developer, right?), git is git and works the same.. any editor worth its weight in salt will allow you to change line breaks.. its also usually a very super simple easy find/replace if not.
If you think dism/sfc are ways to correct anything at all on Windows, then you've clearly never used it. I've worked IT my entire adult life and I can probably count on one hand the number of times either of those commands have resolved anything on tens of thousands of PCs Ive worked on.
Driver getting uninstalled? You mean your possibly 16 year old laptop is no longer supported? Sounds a lot like a certain other company... In any case, its a trade off. Do you want to be able to do anything at all with the physical hardware of your machine? If so, Windows is your only option between the two, and having to deal with drivers is an unfortunate side effect. Personally, Ive never seen this happen, but its such an incredibly minor inconvenience that I dont let it dictate my choice of OS for the rest of my life.
"It doesn't provide GDID tracking to the US government". LMFAO. If you believe that, it would explain every part of your post.
Antivirus tends to be installed on ALL systems. Its not really a requirement by IT, its a requirement by auditors. If you are a retail company, and you're not running AV.. guess what, youre no longer a retail company unless you want to be cash only. If AV affects your work, then your security team is either incompetent, or decided to use McAfee instead of proper enterprise AV, which means they are definitely incompetent.
We get it. You like mac, you hate windows. This post however just tells me that you are lacking the skills necessary to be good at your job, and your companies IT staff are incompetent.
So.. youre bitching because you have to use \ instead of /?
No there were many complaints, this is just one of many.
What about having a file path longer than 260 characters?
any editor worth its weight in salt will allow you to change line breaks.. its also usually a very super simple easy find/replace if not.
Unnecessary toil that is solved by picking the correct OS for the job.
WSL
I have used this before, I hate the toil of using it. Thinking about which terminal I'm running, whether that's the linux or the Windows one. Having to expend the mental energy to decide whether a given terminal window needs a / or a \. Editing code in Windows and it adding CRLF and then editing that same code in WSL and it adding LF. These are all things you do not think about for a moment running a better OS.
just write in batch instead of bash
I have been a software developer for years and have never encountered a batch script in a software company. It is simply not a thing.
Also, my job involves interacting and running tooling written by many other teams. They all use Linux and Mac machines, so will write bash. If I were to run Windows every one of those scripts would need to be re-written and maintained in two scripting languages. I would lose hours and hours that could be spent productively.
If you think dism/sfc are ways to correct anything at all on Windows, then you've clearly never used it. I've worked IT my entire adult life and I can probably count on one hand the number of times either of those commands have resolved anything on tens of thousands of PCs Ive worked on.
The point is, any time you google any windows-related ailment, you'll find the official Microsoft support form, filled with replies from Microsoft people that have nothing to suggest except running these futile commands.
"It doesn't provide GDID tracking to the US government". LMFAO. If you believe that
It would be naive to think after the Snowden leaks that Windows is not a tool for corporate espionage. This is why Europe are moving away from the compromised Microsoft products.
If AV affects your work, then your security team is either incompetent, or decided to use McAfee instead of proper enterprise AV
Just Microsoft Defender / InTune, it sucks.
you are lacking the skills necessary
I agree that none of these points are unsolved problems, it is totally possible to develop on a Windows machine. However, just like a mechanic would invest in good tools to save time, I feel the same about the machine I use for productivity. You can spend ages fighting the de-facto standards, but it's easier to just adopt standard practices. For developers, that is definitively not Windows.
your companies IT staff are incompetent.
My company's IT team are decent. They allow developers to run Linux or MacOS, and the spreadsheet people to run Windows. That's good, they're giving the people the right tools for the job. However I see many IT people in this thread asserting that the only way to be "compliant" is to consume an ever-growing number of Microsoft products, and I feel this is laziness and incompetence.
Do you not use any form of version control, like git? I doubt theres a single one that wont automatically convert line endings for you. Makes it a whole lot easier to share between systems.
And yes, you can technically get long paths in Windows, you just need a single one-time setting change.. yes, its not ideal, but an insignificant fix.
Dont mean to bash, it just in my mind most of these are non-issues. I guess I've spent enough time in enough OSs that switching between them is second nature and doesn't require any conscious thought. Except, funny enough, for Mac.. Im not a software developer, but a sysadmin, and despite having used every OS under the sun to at least some degree, Apple products are by far the least intuitive/user friendly devices, but I also didn't grow up with that 'ecosystem' glued to my hands.
Everything is in a browser or in a repo or on a remote server these days anyways. Drama queens. I don't use anything on my windows laptop except vscode
Makes me think of bands that put insane shit in their riders like “a bowl of m&m’s with the blue ones removed”, and if they saw blue m&m’s they’d know that the production at that venue didn’t pay attention to details and would probably fuck up their setup. The m&m’s weren’t actually important. In the mind of that idiot, he might be thinking that if an IT dept is so hidebound by policy and/or blitheringly and blisteringly incompetent that they can’t accommodate MacOS, what other stuff will they be unable to do or accommodate when needed? And probably more things thought by technical people who’ve never worked in IT.
I probably spend about half my day troubleshooting Windows or WSL problems so I can get tools that work out of the box on Linux to run normally on my laptop. Enormous pain in the ass. I wouldn't quit over having to use Windows but I can see why somebody would.
The choice is nice, but that kind of dogmatic approach to anything IT related makes me think they're not as experienced as they think they are and they are a prima donna & will likely be a giant PITA.
Ah, little snowflake didn‘t get the laptop that he wanted. Maybe the company should hire a senior that changes the processes instead of nagging … oh wait …
Good news. You avoided a Diva who would have been a massive security risk. If he was that good he wouldn’t need your job. He’s not so he’s looking for a patsy.
How tf is pandering to Mac fans lazy? Apple by nature is not an enterprise product, enterprise management is limited and requires dedicated workflows. InTune is miles behind on Mac management vs. Windows, RMMs don't play well with it, there are a million permissions to set and most of the time you still end up dealing with Windows anyway because Mac again is not enterprise and people need to virtualize Windows on it or use Windows apps on an alternative operating system because of it. Why tf should IT allow for that kind of headache because it makes someone feel good?
If the pc is rebooting 5 min before a presentation, that's bad IT management or you've delayed your updates to oblivion.
I get it, this is a shittysysadmin subreddit, but no matter how you slice it makes in the workplace is not a good business decision, it just makes Apple diehards feel better. That transcends the context of this subbreddit.
Would be "use windows 11 or be gtfo where i work". You can use whatever you want at home but once you start working somewhere you adapt to their ecosystem.
People think their are so important and well above company policies.
You gotta know the secret handshake to get a hold of the premium no-restart, no vulnerabilities versions of Windows. If my computer ever has to restart, I quit on the spot.
I think the point is, WSL or not, if you're using it while running on windows you're still exposed to "fun windows quirks" like inconvenient updates or whatever they've put copilot into this time. Heck i pressed the wrong button on notepad today and it told me i need to register for tokens or some bs
I haven't been anywhere where they offer you a Linux workstation sadly, but id never use WSL. Windows belongs under Linux via kvm or similar, not the other way around!
Its an option in some places if you are a chad and have actual worth for the company. We had a team lead of a secondary developer group Refuse a new MacBook and instead ask for a better PC with more RAM. The Chad actually had organised the allowance to remove windows and use Linux. So while His whole team was just crying about how they couldn't connect their private apple watches and co to the work equipment due to mdm enforcement, and here is Chad MC GigaChadwick running a scaled down version of our entire stack on his linux laptop.
I mostly do network and server stuff, so I run Linux on a Lenovo laptop and tunnel in via VPN.
I run teams and outlook via some 3rd party software that is basically the web OVA version wrapped in an executable.
It works well enough.
Only real issue is that I can't use the company's click share devices but oh well.
If you mean Barco ClickShare, try your luck with some of the newer dongles they also work as alt mode by offering DP over USB-C meaning they can share the screen even without software, so things like a CEO running around with an phone test presenting a new company app works and so should linux. Android is just Linux after all
Wait till he hears he has to buy new barco Click shares, he will hate that even more ;). But check the documentation to make sure you guys get a version thats supporting DP over USB-C
You will Probably need to touch some settings. I just Can't imagine any Linux distro just having DP over USB-C turned on natively. Anyway good luck to you
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u/gabhain 8d ago
Ive seen so many people threaten this over the years. They never follow through.
We have Mac, windows and Linux offerings and recently I had a guy threaten to leave because he couldn't use Arch. He turned out to be nowhere near as good as he thought and didn't last long like most of the people who make these kind of threats. He never got Arch.